and perishes under the eye of the observer."* It must nevertheless be allowed, that Buonaparte was no vulgar conqueror, and that he aspired, in a country where, as he himfelf expreffes it, "barbarism was at its height," to introduce the arts of civilization, the knowledge of jurisprudence, and the practice and love of industry.

The communication of Alexandria with Rofetta by fea being cut off, the French general caused the canal which led from Rhamania to Alexandria, across the Desert, to be repaired and cleanfed. Left entirely to his own resources, he seemed to continue with greater ardor and activity his civil and military operations. At Belbeis and Salhaic he constructed forts and redoubts to guard against the attacks of the Turks on the fide of Syria; and drew plans for the better defence of Grand Cairo and Alexandria. He formed also a great establishment for the different mechanical arts, in which he was assisted by the artists and scientific men who had accompanied the expedition, and with the aid of whom he formed a national institute. At his invitation the Schieks from different provinces affembled at Cairo, where Monge and Berthollet fubmitted to their deliberations various questions of political œconomy, and reguJations of administrative government. Every art of courtesy and of policy was put in practice to acquire the confidence of the natives, but with little apparent fuccefs. The French were still regarded as intruders and ufurpers, and nothing could reconcile the minds of the Egyptians, blindly and obftinately attached to the Mahometan superstition, to the government of ftrangers and infidels.

This inward enmity broke out into a violent insurrection in the city of Grand Cairo in the month of October, which the French, being attacked fuddenly and unprepared, were obliged to exert themselves vigorously to repel. Many Frenchmen

"Reflections on the French Revolution."

Frenchmen were maffacred at the commencement of the commotion, amongst whom was general Dupuis, commandant of the garrison; but the infurgents were at length subdued with great lofs of blood; and the revolt ferved but to increase and establish the power of Buonaparte. It was remarked in this, as on other occafions, that the Arabs, the Turks, and the Mamelouks, were far more active in their oppofition to the French than the aboriginal inhabitants, who were too much accustomed to subjection to think of refiftance to any affumption of authority. The fect of the Cophts, who were Chriftians of the Greek communion, fhewed themselves, on the contrary, at all times, and particularly during the late attempt, strongly attached to the invaders-cherishing, no doubt, a dawn of hope that the hour of their deliverance from the Turkish bondage was at hand, But their numbers were comparatively small, and their influence yet smaller.

By this time the army of Murad Bey was again defeated in Upper Egypt, near the pyramids of Saccara; and another body of Mamelouks, under Ibrahim Bey, on the fide of Syria, was difperfed by the forces which had been left on the coast under the command of general Kleber. The declaration of the grand-feignor having now arrived in Egypt, general Buonaparte fet on foot very great military preparations, plainly indicating his purpose to make yet farther and mightier efforts for what, in the revolutionary language of France, was styled the deliverance and regeneration of the Eaftern world; and his intention of revifiting France was for the prefent entirely fufpended.

Admiral Nelfon had been received, after returning from his Egyptian expedition, with the highest honors almost ever paid to any perfon. The victory he had gained excited a great fenfation in Europe, from the frozen coafts of the Baltic to the golden fhores of Hefperia. On his appearance in the Bay of Naples, on the 22d of September, his Sicilian majefty inftantly went on board the admiral's fhip, attended

by

by a numerous train of barges and boats, with colours and mufic, the whole of that beautiful natural amphitheatre being crowded with spectators. Also when the admiral returned the royal vifit, every mark of respect and attention was fhewn to him, and a new confederacy against France began to be publickly and confidently talked of. "Fire but one gun," faid the chevalier Acton, first minister to the king of Naples," and the congress of Raftadt is diffolved."

The honors and rewards allotted to admiral Nelson in his native country were still more flattering and fubftantial. In addition to the dignity before conferred upon him of Knight of the Bath, he was now created Baron Nelfon of the Nile, to which was annexed a perpetual annuity of 2,000 /.; and he was authorized to bear for his armorial enfigns a palmtree, and for his creft, on a naval crown, the chelingk or plume of triumph. The victory was celebrated with great rejoicings all over the kingdom; and new hopes, not lefs chimerical and extravagant than the former, began to be entertained of humbling the pride of France. The unfortunate effect of this glorious victory was not to inspire a difpofition to embrace the favorable moment to conclude an advantageous and honorable peace, but to raise the finking credit of a weak, baffled, and degraded administration, and to exalt a new, a ruinous, and fenfelefs war into unmerited popularity.

The congrefs at Raftadt, which had commenced its fittings on the ift of January (1798), seemed, in the course of almost a year, to have made very little progrefs. France adhered tenaciously to her project of making the Rhine the barrier of the republic. It was no fecret that this propofition had been affented to by the emperor in the feparate articles of the treaty of Campo Formio. The greater part of the Venetian territory, and the whole of Bavaria beyond the Inn, were made the rich reward of this compliance; and the House of Auftria, by a rare fortune, on the termination of a war to her almost uniformly unsuccessful,

would

would thus be left more powerful than at the commencement of it. The grand difficulty confifted in arranging: that fyftem of fecularization by which it was proposed to compenfate the loffes of those whose dominions were to be ceded to France by the treaty of Raftadt. But the Deputation of the empire refifted with the greatest obstinacy. the sacrifice required of them They afferted that the integrality of the empire ought to be maintained, fince it ferved as the bafis of the preliminaries of Leoben; and that the acquifition of the left fide of the Rhine was not of such importance to France as the violation of that integrality to the States of Germany: That the ceffion in question affe&ted mediately or immediately the interests of no less than thirty-one fecular and thirteen ecclefiaftical states; and that no means ought to be left unfought for preventing so vast an alienation.

The French plenipotentiaries, Treilhard and Bonnier, still however infifting on the first demand, and being powerfully feconded by the courts of Vienna and Berlin, the deputation on the 12th of March most reluctantly confented to this immenfe facrifice. The plenipotentiaries then went into the queftion of indemnity, which was agreed to be fettled on the principle of fecularizing the poffeffions of the ecclefiaftical princes. After much time fruitlessly spent in difcuffing this endless topic of difputation, the French were defired to ftate their ulterior demands. This was done on the 13th of May, by a note, containing the following requifitions: 1ft, The navigation of the Rhine to be common to both nations, fuppreffing the right of tolls altogether. 2dly, To leave all the islands. of the Rhine in poffeffion of the republic. 3dly, To retain poffeffion of the fort of Kehl, and the territory contiguous on the German fide of the Rhine; likewise of the suburb of Caffel, oppofite to the city of Mentz. 4thly, To demolish the fortress of Ehrenbreitftein, now clofely blockaded by the French,

Thefe

These extortionate demands gave great and just offence, not only to the Deputation, but also to the courts of Vienna and Berlin and the conqueror of Italy, having now departed on his romantic expedition, the language of the Deputation, fecretly encouraged, no doubt, by the emperor, began to affume a firmer tone. The ambassadors of Auftria and Prussia remonstrated in formal and official memorials against thefe conditions, as ignominious to the empire, and fatal no less to her fafety than her honor. Ehrenbreitstein, Kehl, and Caffel, were the bulwarks of the empire on the fide of France; and to require the ceffion or the demolition of these antient fortreffes, was in effect to. claim a free entrance into the heart of Germany whenever it suited the selfish or ambitious purposes of France.

After new and lengthened difcuffion, the Deputation confented to the demolition of Ehrenbreitftein; and the French agreed to a divifion of the islands in the river, and to relinquish the territory adjoining to Kehl; but neither would the Deputation or the Imperial minister accede to the ceffion of that fortrefs or of Caffel. After fome time the French made (September 14), the farther conceffion, that the fortreffes of Kehl and Caffel should also be demolished instead of being given up; and in a note prefented on the 3d of October, fome other points in difpute, of inferior confequence, were either modified or changed. But the Directory, by their incapacity and want of difcernment, had fuffered the favorable moment to elapfe. By the display of an ambition no lefs impolitic than unprincipled, they had again awakened the fpirit of resistance in the court of Vienna, which had recently entered into very intimate connections with the court of St. Petersburg; and the victory of Aboukir had already laid the foundation of a new confederacy against France, infinitely more justifiable

than the former.

A variety of meffages and memorials having paffed without effect, the French plenipotentiaries, on the 7th of De

cember,